Forty years ago, Jethro Tull played an apocalyptic show at Red Rocks Amphitheatre amid tear gas, unruly crowds, hurled rocks, violent police officers and a swooping police helicopter. It was to be the end of rock 'n' roll at Red Rocks forever. And for the five years after the concert, there was no rock music at the legendary mountain amphitheater. "It was an overreaction by the ...

Ian's style has inspired many performers over the years. Intrinsic to the "Tull" success, Colorado is indigenious to much of the "material" of their lyrics. I saw them all jammed into an old Ford Falcon on E.Colfax in 72. Comical and elusive to say the least.

I wasn't at Red Rocks but I have seen Tull live several times and have always loved every concert. Ian Anderson is one of the great showman ever and the mix of flute with rock n roll is fantastic. Long Live Jethro Tull and Rock n Roll.

Although I've seen Tull many times over the years, as well as other favorites from back in the day, my days of supporting them are over. No longer will I grace them with my attendance at $80-$100 per ticket. It is a real pity that ticket prices are so exhorbitant for a rock-n-roll concert. A single guy, taking a date for the show, will shell out $200 just for tickets. This is nuts. Just nuts. It is right up there with professional ball players taking steroids. We need congressional hearings and, perhaps, a federal government oversight committee.

And at the end of this article there is a plug for TicketMaster, showing tickets for $60. Fails to make note of the 25%-30% surcharge that goes on top of the ticket price.

As a die-hard free market dude, I'm all for people making whatever money the market will bear. Nothing wrong with Ian and the guys charging whatever they can get away with. Maybe Martin Barre needs some new guitars. Good gear does cost a pretty quid. I just won't support it any longer. Further concert (Phil Lesh) was my last show at Red Rocks last year, and at $85 a ticket, that was it. No more.

Now then.......if there are any big-hearted liberal dems out there that want to pay for my ticket, or know of a government-run program that subsidizes Tull fans that do not want to take personal responsibility for purchasing tickets to their own rock-n-roll entertainment, please drop me a line.

Let me try this again, as it appears my first attempt (ever) to comment in the forum was not successful. Mister Baca's contention that: "Back-up officers were called, and police chief George Seaton came out in the helicopter and dropped tear gas on the unruly masses himself."

Either Mister Baca did not adequately research his sources, or simply accepted some "Urban Legend" notion that Seaton was lobbing tear gas canisters out the window of a hovering helicopter that day is unsure. What is certain, even Chief Seaton was not stupid enough to arm a gas canister within the cockpit of a helicopter. The purpose of Chief Seaton's fly over of the area was, of course, to get the best perspective on the conflagration below. How do I know that? Well, I was there, sitting right next to the Chief, in that helicopter, on that infamous day.

(Having now read the "Keep it clean..." admonition for these posts, I now understand why my prior comment may not have made the cut...)

I was at the concert and I paid to get in. In fact I was one of the first in and got a seat up front. I remember the tear gas and thought what a stupid idea....with people sitting on the flatiron rocks on the sides of the venue, someone was bound to get hurt trying to get off those rocks. It was a different era. The next year Tull came and played in Denver. Ian and the band came on stage wearing gas masks. Too funny. I thought Ian gave up rock and roll and decided to be a commercial fisherman. I guess the money is just too good to stay away. Glad he's back....too bad he's not touring anywhere around where I live. I'd buy a gas mask and go see the concert!

Great concert! Tull was in Denver a lot, I remember sitting on the floor in front of the "stage" at Mammoth Gardens watching him play the flute in his bathrobe, lot's of great concerts there. After Woodstock, when he was better known, the Red Rocks date was great, minus the abusive stupid cop antics, which happened at many concerts at the time. I have a happy but somewhat hazy memory of many in Denver. There were a number of us that usually required free admission, and we frequently ran into cops who were giddy about hurting us, or at least were trying to. At that time at Red Rocks you could climb in over the north cliff and jump about 30 feet to get into the seating area. They used to gas us every chance they got, and liked to beat us up with their sticks if they got close enough. It happened at just about every concert at the time, like they were planning on it for recreation. When they gassed those of us getting in free they would usually expose everyone at the concert, especially at the Denver Pop Festival at the sports stadium. We broke down their flimsy fences to get in and they went crazy and gassed everyone there. The only way I escaped a beating by a bug eyed cop with a club was by running to and standing by a deafening speaker playing Iron Butterfly's innagoddadavida. I remember looking over at him and laughing to his frustrated face because he couldn't stand getting any closer to the crushing sound. All those abusive cop antics didn't seem to dampen the performers or the crowds enthusiasm any. I can't imagine anything like that ever happening today. At this point they could probably catch me if it did.

I too was at the Red Rocks concert. We had our tickets and were sitting about half way up. I would never say it was intentional or that for sure it came from the helicopter but believe me the first tear gas canister landed in the paying crowd about 20 feet in front of us. The gas definitely didn't drift in. It was thrown there. It's amazing someone inside didn't get hurt because we were all running up the seats to get away from it.I also remember reading or hearing the next day that dogs were chasing the kids off the rocks and one fell and broke his pelvis. It was a very bad situation from the people trying to get in to the way the police handled it.I also was at the next years Tull concert when Ian Anderson come onstage in a gas mask and said "This time I came prepared". That was funny.

I have a few questions for Mr. Seaton. How old were you 40 years ago? And were you a policeman too? If not, what were you doing in the helicopter beside, I assume, your dad. I can't believe a civilian much less a kid would be allowed to ride along in a helicopter to check out a riot.

One of the problems was that the Jefferson County high schools just finished the school year that day and students from all over wanted to celebrate summer break and Red Rocks was just up the road. I went to Bear Creek and we were always driving up there and climbing the rocks so a Tull concert with was going to be the ultimate in our minds. No surprise they had such an overflow.

i was there and what an case of overkill by both the police and the patrons. the tear gas and billy clubs were totally unnecessary. back in those days if the cops saw you were having fun out would come the billy clubs. it is shame 5 years of great music was lost at red rocks by an mcnichols' knee jerk reaction. did it really take 5 years to organize a strategy for crowd control? i think not.

Hoosier Guy wrote:Sounds like an episode of police attacking and perfectly peaceful and law abiding crowd. Yeah right that's what happened.

Just like in Jerusalem, there was not only one crowd. I was inside and as was the custom back then, we got there hours before the show. We had not seen anything outside. Rumors came down the stairs from those who came after us.

What I can say, is Tull was the first concert of the summer. There was a widespread belief that it was easy to climb the rocks and watch the concert. I think Barry Fey was somewhat wrong. Having Tull play more than one show would not work. It was the opening show for Red Rocks. Looking back, Fey should have scheduled something mellow to start the summer off. Two thousand people would not gave come to get free music. Some would and if they had to, the police could have practiced crowd control with a less resistant group.

The crowd inside *was* a "perfectly peaceful and law abiding crowd." But, the tear gas was thrown over the rocks. Nine thousand of us saw the smoke going down the stairs not blown by the wind. And the tear gas hit when the helicopter went by. The Denver Police copter crashed a couple years later and not one Tull fan cried over it.

Don't anyone try to recreate 40 years ago without the knowledge that the police brass did hate the freaks. And outdoor concerts were where they showed it. There were overreactions at the Denver Rock Festival in Bears Stadium that messed up the whole thing. Going after the Crusade was their big triumph as was sweeping out Wash Park nightly.